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In the dairy aisle, Gary Holder-Winfield wanted to buy butter. With only $28 budgeted for the week, he reached instead for the 89-cent margarine.
On any other trip to Stop & Shop, Holder-Winfield said, he would have bought butter without thinking twice about it. But on Tuesday morning, a day before voting on a new statewide minimum wage, Holder-Winfield wasn’t doing his normal grocery shopping. He was taking part in the “SNAP challenge.”
For the week, Holder-Winfield, a New Haven state senator, is restricting his weekly food budget to $28, the amount that a single person might receive under the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
Holder-Winfield is timing his challenge to coincide with the state legislature’s consideration Wednesday of a bill that would raise the minimum wage from its current $8.70 an hour to $10.10 by 2017.
Holder-Winfield’s first selection at Stop & Shop Tuesday? A bag of rice.
“You can make a lot of rice,” he said.
Perusing the options in the rice aisle, Holder-Winfield predicted he might get some grief for choosing white rice over brown. Living on $28 per week, the question isn’t which rice is most healthful, but “what’s the cheap rice?”
The minimum wage and food stamps are connected, Holder-Winfield said. Many people worked full-time minimum-wage jobs end up needing SNAP to make ends meet. Other necessary expenses like rent and gas can eat up an entire month’s minimum wages, leaving no money left over for food.
It’s called “supplemental,” but SNAP is for some their only money for food, Holder-Winfield said. That’s why, as he takes the SNAP challenge, Holder-Winfield is limiting himself to only $28.
“The point is to demonstrate how difficult it is,” Holder-Winfield said.
He arrived at Stop & Shop on Whalley Avenue at 8 a.m. on Tuesday with a game plan already in mind. He said he is tackling the challenge more realistically than other politicians have in the past.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy took a similar challenge last spring, and took some flack for not buying bulk foods and instead spending his money on things like an airport bagel. (Read about Murphy’s week on a food-stamp budget here, here, here, and here.)
Holder-Winfield opted for the 2‑pound bag of Stop & Shop brand white rice. “If I had more money, I’d buy the larger amount,” he said. Rice is cheaper per pound when purchased in bigger bags.
In the same aisle, Holder-Winfield picked up a 69-cent can of red beans, to make beans and rice. He noted that dried beans would be cheaper, but he wouldn’t have time to soak and cook them.
Holder-Winfield said he could also use the beans to make a chili, to put over spaghetti.
“I grew up in housing projects,” Holder-Winfield said. He said his family never needed assistance, because his mom had a good job. But she had three kids, and Holder-Winfield’s dad left the family. “Unexpected stuff came up. We never went shopping without coupons.”
In the meat section, Holder-Winfield picked up a pound of ground turkey for $3.49, to make his chili.
In the produce section, Holder-Winfield looked around for something cheap to “fill me up.” He grabbed a bag of apples for $2.99.
He selected a $3 bag of spinach. “I can use the spinach in a lot of things,” he said. “I can sauté it in the morning with an egg.”
At the other side of the store, he added a $2 carton of eight Grade A white eggs to his shopping basket.
He selected a package of margarine to cook with, then headed to the pasta aisle to get an 88-cent jar of Francesco Rinaldi for his chili, and 79-cent 1‑pound box of pasta.
To add flavor to his beans and rice, Holder-Winfield grabbed a 99-cent can of chicken broth.
He set down his shopping basket and took stock. He was up to about $19. What else could he afford to buy?
“I would love to worry about food groups,” he said. “That’s not what I’m thinking.”
He decided to pick up another pound of meat. It was the most expensive item, but it would make his chili go a lot farther. He also picked up another 69-cent can of beans, and a 1‑pound bag of frozen vegetables, for $2.
Before heading to check-out, Holder-Winfield reflected on his shopping experience: “What we learned is for that amount of money, you can get food. But it’s difficult to get food and you have to make choices.”
Those choices have to be purely financial, he said. “You can’t think of what’s healthy.” Holder-Winfield said he loaded up on more “carbs” than he normally would, which might go to his waistline. And he would normally cook with olive oil, but that’s far too expensive.
People living on limited resources might be able to buy enough food, but can they afford to eat healthfully? Holder-Winfield asked. “Even if they can make it work, what are they eating?”
After checking himself out, Holder-Winfield’s groceries came to $23.57. With $4.43 left over, Holder-Winfield said he’d probably buy a big bottle of water that he would be able to refill and keep with him.
Holder-Winfield loaded his groceries into his car. Then the real challenge began — living on the food for a week.
He said he’d skipped breakfast. He’d have to eat an apple and see if he could find a way to boil an egg at the Capitol.
This is nice. But try to do it for the rest of your life! Not knowing if you have any money coming in next week. What if you get sick, food is then cut in half, or out. It just makes me mad when someone does this type of thing.